Airbnb
Kobalt, Apple and smartwatches, Hadoop, customer support, and social work and AI
The Kobalt EC-1: How a Swedish saxophonist built Kobalt, the world’s next music unicorn My favorite pieces we host on Extra Crunch are our EC-1 series of in-depth profiles and…
‘The Operators’: Experts from Airbnb and Carta on building and managing your company’s customer support
Airbnb’s Global Product Director of Customer and Community Support, and Carta’s Head of Enterprise Relationship Management share how companies should be thinking about customer service.
Doubling down on business travelers, Airbnb acquires Urbandoor
Airbnb has today announced the acquisition of Urbandoor, a platform that offers extended stays to corporate clients. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Urbandoor was founded in 2015,…
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What happened to the sharing economy?
A few years ago, Silicon Valley couldn’t stop using a trendy buzzword — the sharing economy. The good old top-down economic model with a clear separation between service providers and clients was falling apart. And huge tech companies disrupted entire industries, from Airbnb to Taskrabbit, Uber, Etsy and Getaround. When you retrospectively look at the…
‘The Operators’: Experts from WeWork and Brex talk marketing – Getting the most bang for your buck
Welcome to this transcribed edition of The Operators. TechCrunch is beginning to publish podcasts from industry experts, with transcriptions available for Extra Crunch members so you can read the conversation…
Hipcamp raises $25 million Series B to take its campsite booking service global.
The home-sharing giant is making things easier for business travelers with a new work trip toggle
India’s budget hotel startup Oyo enters co-working business with $30 million Innov8 acquisition
India’s Oyo has expanded its hotel chain business to more than 80 countries and entered the co-living spaces segment in recent years. The firm, which has raised about $1 billion since…
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The rise of the new crypto “mafias”
In the early 2000s, journalists popularized the term “PayPal mafia” to describe the PayPal founders and employees who left to start their own wildly successful tech companies, including Peter Thiel, Reid Hoffman, and Elon Musk. Drawing from that idea, this article seeks to cover the formation and flow of talent within the crypto landscape today.…
Live like a robber baron for a night with Airbnb Luxe
Airbnbs are a mixed bag. Pictures only tell half the story, and sometimes you don’t really know what you’re getting into until you get there. Say what you will about…
GuestReady raises $6M to help hosts on Airbnb and other services manage their property
GuestReady, a three-year-old service that lets shared-economy hosts manage their business on Airbnb and other rental sites, has announced a $6 million Series A round. The investment was led by…
Airbnb has debuted a new extension of its growing business in providing travel experiences in addition to temporary housing. Called Airbnb Adventures, it’s effectively a collection of tours and trips…
BetterUp raises $103M to fast-track employee learning and development
Lightspeed Venture Partners has led BetterUp’s Series C financing.
Korean hotel platform Yanolja raises $180M at a valuation of over $1B
The travel tech industry has got another unicorn. Following the likes of Airbnb, OYO, Traveloka and Klook, Korea’s Yanolja said today it has closed a $180 million Series D round…
Slack narrows losses, displays healthy revenue growth
Slack posted first-quarter revenues of $134.8 million on losses of $31.8 million weeks ahead of its NYSE direct listing.
How to trigger FOMO among VCs, plus PMs, SoftBank, and cheese
Fundraising 101: How to trigger FOMO among VCs Our media columnist Eric Peckham talked to a variety of successful founders on how they generate FOMO (i.e. fear of missing out)…
Q&A with J Crowley, Head of Product at Airbnb Lux, on what makes a great PM
The role of Product Manager can mean very different things at various companies. Should a product manager be technical? Scientific? Opinionated? J Crowley has run product at three big-name companies.…
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The Exit: Getaround’s $300M roadtrip
In August of last year, Getaround scored $300 million from Softbank. Eight months later they handed that same amount to Drivy, a Parisian peer-to-peer car rental service that was Getaround’s ticket to tapping into European markets. Both companies shared similar visions for the future of car ownership, they were about the same size, both were…
Ahrendts, the former senior vice president fo retail at Apple, joins as Airbnb’s third independent non-affiliated board member.
GetYourGuide picks up $484M, passes 25M tickets sold through its tourism activity app
As we swing into the summer tourist season, a company poised to capitalise on that has raised a huge round of funding. GetYourGuide — a Berlin startup that has built…
Karat nabs $28M led by Tiger Global to grow its human-powered online interview platform for engineering jobs
A high demand for engineering talent in our digital world has driven companies that need to make these technical hires to cast their nets wider in the search for good…
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Beyond costs, what else can we do to make housing affordable?
In this section of my exploration into innovation in inclusive housing, I am digging into the 200+ companies impacting the key phases of developing and managing housing.
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Market map: the 200+ innovative startups transforming affordable housing
How founders are taking on housing costs worldwide.
Meet Bobbie, a baby formula delivery startup promising healthier ingredients
Don’t like the idea of your baby guzzling down liquid candy all day? It may surprise you to find corn syrup is the main ingredient in most infant formulas in…
Printify raises $3M to expand its marketplace for custom printing
Bling Capital, YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin and several others have participated in the round.
Hotels are convenient but rarely homey. Short-term rentals through Airbnb or HomeAway are often comfy but can be a pain to book and check-in. Business travelers often have to pick…
Thunes raises $10M to make financial services more accessible in emerging markets
Cross-border fintech continues to be an area of interest for venture capitalists. The latest deal sees GGV Capital — the U.S-China firm that’s backed Xiaomi, Airbnb, Square and others —…
Andreessen Horowitz, the storied venture capital firm with investments in Airbnb, Buzzfeed and Coinbase, has reportedly closed on $2.75 billion for two new funds.
Airbnb-backed OYO moves into Europe, buys Leisure Group from Axel Springer for $415M
OYO, the fast-growing budget hotel startup out of India that’s backed by Airbnb, SoftBank, Grab and Didi, has made an acquisition to expand its footprint into Europe, specifically around self-catering…
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India’s Times Internet isn’t ceding ground to US rivals Facebook and Google
The aggressive push by Silicon Valley companies and Chinese firms to win India, one of the last great growth markets, has decimated many local businesses in recent years. With each passing day, Amazon is closing in on Walmart-owned Flipkart’s lead on the e-commerce space. Uber is fighting with Ola for the tentpole position of the…
